SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) will continue to de-energize certain electrical lines as part of a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) due to a strong and dry wind event creating high fire risk.
As communicated on Friday, the PSPS event will affect customers in portions of 16 counties, primarily in Northern and Central Sierra region, although the number of customers expected to be impacted has decreased by 27 percent due to favorable changes in forecast weather conditions.
This PSPS event is based on forecasts of widespread, severely dry conditions and strong, gusty winds. These conditions are expected to continue through Monday morning in most locations.
In total the power shutoff event is expected to impact approximately 65,000 customers in portions of 16 counties, including: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lake, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Tehama and Yuba counties. Two customers within Sonoma County and 15 customers in Kern County are also expected to be included in the scope of this PSPS.
Some customers may experience outages unrelated to this PSPS event due to requests from CAL FIRE to de-energize lines for the safety of firefighters in active fire areas or damage caused from wildfire related impacts to equipment.
PG&E is working to improve its PSPS program by making events smaller in size, shorter in length and smarter for our customers. While PSPS is an important wildfire safety tool, PG&E understands the burden PSPS places on its customers especially for those with medical needs and customers sheltering-at-home in response to COVID-19.
Timeline for safety shutoffs
PG&E began de-energization for the first wave of 11,000 customers around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Based on wind forecasts, de-energization for the second wave of 54,000 customers will begin at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Power is expected to be out overnight Sunday into Monday for all customers.
Once the high winds subside Monday morning, PG&E will inspect the de-energized lines to ensure they were not damaged during the wind event, and then restore power. PG&E will safely restore power in stages as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring power to nearly all customers who are safe to restore within 12 daylight hours after severe weather has passed.
Customer notifications-via text, email and automated phone call-began Thursday, approximately 48 hours prior to the potential shutoff. Customers enrolled in the company's Medical Baseline program who do not verify that they have received these important safety communications will be individually visited by a PG&E employee to deliver the warning if possible, starting with customers who rely on electricity for critical life-sustaining equipment.
Contact:
Tel: (415) 973-5930
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation(NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 23,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to 16 million people in Northern and Central California.
PG&E CORPORATION 
